Lesions. Besides the lesions described for solipeds, one finds in cattle, tuberculosis of the liver, spleen, and lymph glands, and extensive clusters of tubercles on the peritoneum. In sheep the white branching lines on the back of the liver may indicate the distension of gall ducts infested by distomata.
Treatment does not differ from that recommended for solipeds. In tuberculous cases, sanitary considerations demand the destruction of the animal and disinfection of the carcass. In distomatosis treatment must be preventive, as the distomata are difficult to reach with vermifuges.
ASCITES IN CARNIVORA.
Causes: obstructed flow of blood in hepatic, portal or renal veins, or in vena cava, renal, heart, liver or splenic diseases, pulmonary congestion, asthma, tuberculosis. Symptoms: pot-belly, hollow above, drooping back and loins, flat percussion sound and fluctuation, change of position changes area of flatness, anæmia, debility, scanty urine, diarrhœa, no fever. Diagnosis: absence of fever, general fluctuation changing its seat by turning the patient, not confined to a given organ like the bladder or womb. Lesions: quantity and composition of liquid, lesions of primary diseases. Treatment: Correct if possible the primary disease, evacuate the liquid, compress on abdomen, iodine solution for irrigation, saline purgatives, diuretics, pilocarpine, bitters, iron, sunshine.
Causes. Ascites is generally the result of some obstruction to the return of blood from some abdominal organ, but may also come from renal disease, or hydroæmia in which general dropsy is likely to occur. The dog is specially subject to heart disease, and disease of the right heart (tricuspid insufficiency, dilatation, hydro-pericarditis, fatty degeneration, etc.) throws the blood back on the whole venous system and the extensive and dilatable portal veins are especially liable to suffer. Diseases of the liver, so common in pampered house dogs, still more directly block the portal circulation and induce ascites. Tumors in the liver or spleen or in the lymph glands of the porta act in this way, also cirrhosis, tuberculosis, cancer, hepatic congestion, and degeneration. Constrictions of the vena portæ by false membranes the result of former peritonitis must also be recognized. As more distant causes, must be named obstruction to the pulmonary circulation, as in congestion, asthma, tuberculosis and diseases of the left heart. Seventy-eight cases were traced as follows: to diseases of the heart and pericardium, 10; to tuberculosis, 8; to pleurisy, 4; to malignant tumors of the liver and lung, 2; to hepatic disease without heart lesion, 3; to cancer of the liver, 1; (Cadiot).
Symptoms. Enlargement of the belly is marked and peculiar, the liquid accumulating below, pushing outward the lower ends of the ribs, and making the lower part of the abdomen baggy while the upper part, under the lumbar transverse processes, is flattened or hollow. The back and loins droop forming a concavity superiorly, so that the belly may almost drag on the ground. On palpation this pendent abdominal sac gives the sensation of a mobile fluid without the usual firm outlines of the intestinal masses, and when percussed it gives out a flat, dull sound and produces a fluctuation or shock at the opposite side of the abdomen. In the upper part of the abdomen over the hollow flank more or less resonance is found. If the animal is made to stand on his hind limbs the saccular dilatation and flatness on percussion are in the region adjoining the pelvis; if held up by its hind limbs they are transferred to the epigastric and hypochondriac regions and the respiration is seriously interfered with; if turned upon his back, the resonance is obtained on the linea alba and at each side, while the percussion dullness is next to the vertebræ. The clearness of the fluctuation is in ratio with the amount of liquid present.
As in other animals, there are anæmia, pale mucosæ, poor condition, thin, dry, unhealthy skin, weak pulse, irritable heart and interference with respiration proportionate to the amount of liquid. The urine is scanty, and there may be diarrhœa.
Diagnosis. From advanced or chronic peritonitis it is distinguished by the history or evidence of diseased liver, heart, or kidney, the absence of hyperthermia or abdominal tenderness, and the absence in the ascitic fluid, extracted with a hypodermic needle, of blood globules, or leucocytes in numbers, of false membranes, of excess of salts, or of a tendency to coagulate firmly.
From overdistended bladder it is diagnosed by its slow, and gradual development, and the change of fluctuation to the most dependent part no matter what position is given to the patient, whereas the tense bladder can be felt through the abdominal walls, extending forward from the pelvis under all circumstances.
From ruptured bladder there is the same distinguishing feature of slow development, the absence of symptoms of uræmic poisoning, of tenderness of the bladder, and of suppression of urine, and also of the urinous odor in the ascitic liquid obtained with the hypodermic needle.